A Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher by Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang, Padmakara Translation Group

By Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang, Padmakara Translation Group

This advisor presents readers with crucial history details for learning and working towards with Patrul Rinpoche's Words of My ideal instructor— the textual content that has, for greater than a century, served because the trustworthy sourcebook to the non secular practices universal to all of the significant colleges of Tibetan Buddhism. via supplying chapter-by-chapter observation in this well known paintings, Khenpo Pelzang presents a clean viewpoint at the function of the trainer; the levels of the trail; the view of the 3 Jewels; Madhyamika, the foundation of transcendent knowledge; and masses extra.

The Karmapa is the religious chief of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. the current Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, is the 16th of the road which begun with Dusum Khyenpa, the 1st Karmapa, within the 12th century. Karma Thinley offers the biographies of all of the Karmapas, in line with his translations from quite a few Tibetan resources.

The elemental knowledge of the center manner used to be written within the moment century and is without doubt one of the most crucial works of Nagarjuna, the pioneering commentator at the Buddha's teachings at the Madhyamika or heart method view. the delicate analyses awarded during this treatise have been heavily studied and commented upon by means of many learned masters from the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist culture.

Civilized Shamans examines the character and evolution of faith in Tibetan societies from the 9th century as much as the chinese language profession in 1950. Geoffrey Samuel argues that faith in those societies constructed as a dynamic amalgam of strands of Indian Buddhism and the indigenous spirit-cults of Tibet.

They gave all they gained and achieved to their children and took all their losses and failures on themselves. They provided every material comfort and happiness for their children and endured all negative actions, hardships, and malicious talk by themselves. Now it is your turn, as their child, to consider the well-being of your old mothers. If you think about this, they all want happiness, from the temporary pleasure of a warm day to the bliss of perfect buddhahood, and yet they do not know how to accomplish the THE FREEDOMS AND ADVANTAGES 25 cause of happiness, which is virtue, nor the sublime path.

Third, the action of the Secret Mantrayana is superior because it is without difficulty. Whereas in the Causal Vehicle of Characteristics there is no path taught for accomplishing enlightenment without giving up the five pleasures of the senses, in the Secret Mantrayana, where the mind is easily and quickly protected, 41 the five pleasures of the senses are not rejected but used as the path, and it is possible to accomplish the level of the union Vajradhara42 in one lifetime and one body. Fourth, the Secret Mantrayana is superior because the individuals who practice it have extremely sharp faculties.

As soon as you become proud, you despise those who are inferior to you, feel jealous of those who are better than you, and develop rivalry with your peers. This is why it is said: Never will the water of good qualities Permeate the iron lump of pride. The moment you feel proud, you fail to see your own faults and are blind to the good qualities in others. To remedy this you should always recognize your own shortcomings, lay bare your own hidden faults, keep a low profile, wear old, tattered clothes, and hold everyone in esteem, whatever their qualities.